{"id":3263,"date":"2012-10-01T11:13:40","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T18:13:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/?p=3263"},"modified":"2025-02-27T10:18:09","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T18:18:09","slug":"paying-it-forward-dr-herbert-m-nakata","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/2012\/10\/01\/paying-it-forward-dr-herbert-m-nakata\/","title":{"rendered":"Paying it Forward: Dr. Herbert M. Nakata"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: right\"><span style=\"color: #0000ff\">Web Extra<\/span><\/p>\n<p><em>by Marcia Hill Gossard \u201999, \u201904 Ph.D. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>When it came to helping students, Dr. Herbert Nakata made it his life\u2019s work. Beginning in 1970 and for the next 28 years, he helped establish 11 endowed scholarships fund that are still supporting students today.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have a lot of empathy for students,\u201d said Dr. Nakata emeritus professor and former chair of the Microbiology department at WSU. \u201cI know how tough it is for them, and college was a lot less expensive back then than it is today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Shortly after Dr. Nakata became chair in 1968, he started an alumni newsletter encouraging former students to give back. The first newsletter was sent to about 150 alumni, but by the time he retired in 1993, the newsletter was reaching around 1700 alumni.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThrough Allied Health grants, the department was fortunate to buy more modern laboratory equipment, which helped attract students to come here,\u201d said Nakata. \u201cWith more alumni the giving really blossomed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His dedication to students and to the microbiology degree allowed Dr. Nakata to connect with alumni; including a 1930 graduate who believed WSU made such a difference in his life that he left half the sale of his home to Microbiology. And in the years 2011 to 2012, 18 students received financial assistance because of the funds Dr. Nakata spearheaded.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cToday undergraduates have several scholarships they can apply for,\u201d said Dr. Nakata. \u201cI feel that is my legacy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To learn more about student scholarships in the School for Molecular Biosciences, <a href=\"https:\/\/smb.wsu.edu\/scholarships-financial-aid\">visit\u00a0Scholarships &amp; Financial Aid<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>Herbert M. Nakata joined the WSU faculty in 1959, and served as chair of the Bacteriology and Public Health\/Microbiology department for 24 years. He retired in 1993 and as professor emeritus Dr. Nakata remains active in the <a href=\"https:\/\/smb.wsu.edu\/\">School of Molecular Biosciences<\/a>, which was established about 10 years ago and houses biochemistry, genetics and cell biology, and microbiology. The <a href=\"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/2010\/09\/25\/wsus-school-of-molecular-biosciences-joins-the-college-of-veterinary-medicine\/\">school joined the College of Veterinary Medicine in 2010<\/a>. The\u00a0Herbert M. Nakata Microbiology Fund\u00a0was established in 1993 by the Department of Microbiology to provide support for undergraduate and graduate students in honor of Dr. Nakata.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When it came to helping students, Dr. Herbert Nakata made it his life\u2019s work. Beginning in 1970 and for the next 28 years, he helped establish 11 endowed scholarships fund that are still supporting students today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1015,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wsuwp_accessibility_report":null},"categories":[541,514],"tags":[619,540,614],"wsuwp_university_location":[332],"wsuwp_university_org":[425,476],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3263"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1015"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3263"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3269,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3263\/revisions\/3269"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3263"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_location?post=3263"},{"taxonomy":"wsuwp_university_org","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cvm.wsu.edu\/advance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wsuwp_university_org?post=3263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}